Touchstone Pictures via Everett Collection
Summer: it's a time to relax, soak up the sun, eat mountains of ice cream and tackle the massive pile of books you've been meaning to read. Whether you need to make your way through hundreds of pages of classic literature before school starts up again or you've just been putting off the heavier tomes on your shelf until you have some more free time, reading the classics can sometimes be a slog in the summer. But it's a task well worth undertaking, and not just because it's good to broaden your literary horizons. Many of your favorite films are actually twists on well-worn tales. Sure, they're enjoyable on their own, but the only way to really pick up on the humor of Jane Austen or the references to Shakespeare in a suburban high school rom com is to read the books first. We've rounded up the best movies that become even better, funnier and more charming after you've read the works their based on. Consider it a well-earned reward for a book well read.
10 Things I Hate About YouBased On: The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare.Most Drastic Change: Aside from the high school setting, he plot was simplified to reduce the amount of characters and false identities. For example, Joey Donner was originally two characters, Gremio and Hortensio. Best Reference to the Source: After Kat almost hits Michael with a car, he calls her a “shrew”; Michael also quotes Shakespearean sonnets several times throughout the film, and Cameron quotes the play itself (“I burn; I pine; I perish”). And there's that one girl who is oddly in love with "William."You’d Only Notice This if You Read the Book: Almost every name in the film is a reference to something else. Padua High School refers to Padua being the location of the play, and Patrick’s last name, Verona, is where Petruchio is originally from. Kat and Bianca’s last name – Stratford – is a reference to Shakespeare’s hometown.
Clueless Based On: Emma by Jane Austen Most Drastic Change: Updating the film to be about ‘90s Valley girls; none of the character’s names are similar to Austen’s characters.Best Reference to the Source: The wedding fake-out at the end of the film. Since Austen wrote a great deal about the marriage plot, all of her novels end with the heroine getting married. You’d Only Notice This if You Read the Book: While most of the characters have Austenian equivalents, Dionne is an original character, although it could be argued that she represents Ms. Weston. Also, Amy Heckerling cut out the character of Jane Fairfax completely. She is the main obstacle to Emma and Frank Churchill’s relationship; his Clueless doppelganger, Christian, is gay instead.
Bridget Jones’ Diary Based On: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Most Drastic Change: Instead of the large family that Elizabeth Bennet has in the book, Bridget is an only child, and has a large group of friends to give her advice, all of whom vaguely resemble her sisters. Best Reference to the Source: Casting Colin Firth as Mark Darcy. Author Helen Fielding has said that she based the character (both in name and looks) on his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 BBC miniseries. You’d Only Notice This if You Read the Book: Instead of Darcy making two proposals, he only makes one; Bridget’s speech when she finds out that he is moving is a reflection of his second confession of love.
She’s the Man Based On: Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare Most Drastic Change: In the play, Viola just pretends to be a man, and calls herself Cesario, rather than specifically impersonating her brother Sebastian. Best Reference to the Source: The character of Malcolm, who is based on the character of Malvolio, has a pet tarantula named Malvolio. You’d Only Notice This if You Read the Books: Like 10 Things I Hate About You, all of the names are either adapted from those of the characters - Duke Orsino is the modern-day equivalent of Orsino, who is a duke, and the restaurant they frequent is called Cesario – or the locations – the school’s name Illyria, is where the play takes place.
Screen Gems via Everett Collection
Easy A Based On: The Scarlett Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne Most Drastic Change: In the book, Hester is ostracized for cheating on her husband with a priest; she got pregnant during the affair. In the film, Olive only pretends to sleep with people. Best Reference to the Source: The foreign film that Olive goes to see, courtesy of one of her fake hookups, is called Der Scharlachrote Buchstabe, which translates to The Scarlett Letter.You’d Only Notice This if You Read the Book: The film is up-front about many of its similarities to Hawthorne’s book, as Olive is studying it in class. Though Olive doesn’t have an affair with anyone, Hester and Arthur Dimmsdale’s relationship is paralleled in the affair that Mrs. Griffith has with Micah.
ScroogedBased On: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Most Drastic Change: At the end of the film, Frank reunites with his love, Claire. However, in the book, too much time has passed for him to reconcile with Belle, and so he is instead content with becoming part of the Cratchitt family. Best Reference to the Original: In addition to Frank Cross joking about “scaring the Dickens out of people,” one of the TV shows he produces is called “Scrooge,” which was an alternate title that Dickens published the story under. You’d Only Notice This if You Read the Book: The Bob Cratchitt part is played by two different characters: Frank’s overworked assistant Grace Cooley and the much-abused yes-man Eliot Loudermilk.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? Based On: Homer’s The Odyssey Most Drastic Change: Instead of journeying home after a great war, Ulysses has escaped from a prison chain gang. Best Reference to the Source: The film is filled with references to the epic, but the cleverest is the repeated use of the song “Man of Constant Sorrow,” as the name Odysseus (the Greek equivalent of Ulysses) means “man who is in constant pain and sorrow.” You’d Only Notice This if You Read the Book: In order to win Penelope’s hand in marriage, all the suitors must string Odysseus’ bow and shoot an arrow through a dozen axe heads, but only Odysseus is strong enough to string the bow. In the film, Ulysseus also strings a bow in order to prove that he is who he says he is, and not an imposter.
Ruby Sparks Based On: Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw.Most Drastic Change: In the play, Higgins “makes” Eliza by transforming her from a flower girl into a lady, but in the film, Calvin physically creates Ruby, as she is a product of his imagination.Best Reference to the Source: At the end, Ruby becomes her own person, and leaves Calvin behind to do what she wants and become who she wants, which reflects the controversial ending of the play, in which Eliza leaves Henry behind in order to marry Freddy, even though Henry disapproves. The ending of Shaw's play was very controversial when it was first performed, but it was important to him that Eliza doesn't marry Henry. You’d Only Notice This if You Read the Book: Calvin’s brother, Harry, repeatedly warns him to be careful with what he’s doing, and not to disregard Ruby’s emotions, just like how Henry’s friend, Colonel Pickering, constantly warns Henry to be kind to Eliza and to treat her like a real person, rather than an experiment.
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Paramount Pictures via Everett Collection
Will Ferrell will put on the dunce cap once again. According to Deadline, TriStar has purchased The Yank, in which he'll play a mild-mannered insurance courier who finds himself in the middle of a heist to steal the crown jewels. Since the large majority of us don't stumble our way into the middle of gigantic, illicit conspiracies, it's safe to say that Ferrell's latest character won't be the brightest bulb in the box. In fact, Ferrell has made a career of playing dim-witted dunderheads. Even his ostensibly smart characters are clearly lacking a couple thousand brain cells. But which is the dumbest dope that Ferrell has ever played? We've decided to rank all of Ferrell's idiots in ascending order of stupidity.
Megamind (Megamind) Megamind is actually a genius, albeit an evil one, so he gets the top spot. However, he is a dope when he comes to relationships.
Harold Crick (Stranger Than Fiction)Sacrificing your life in the name of great art is quite an academic pursuit, so cheers.
Det. Allen Gamble (The Other Guys) Under a slightly frumpy and dopey exterior is actually the mind of a pretty gifted detective. In any case, you have to be doing something smart to attract Eva Mendez.
Buddy (Elf) Buddy isn't stupid as he is just lost in a world that isn't constantly running in full-on Christmas mode. The North Pole is a long sleigh ride away from Manhattan.
Chazz Michael Michaels (Blades of Glory)It does take some smarts to weasel your way back into a sport you were banned from. Too bad the tapes of him figure skating with Jon Heder will exist on the internet forever. That's quite the oversight.
Dr. Rick Marshall (Land of the Lost)Marshall is actually a gifted scientist, but for all of his fancy book learning, he does lack an incredible amount of common sense.
Phil Weston (Kicking and Screaming)Getting that wrapped up in pee-wee soccer, the least worthy pee-wee sport there is, is almost criminally stupid.
Cam Brady (The Campaign) Cam Brady nearly makes real politicians seem smart...nearly.
Jackie Moon (Semi-Pro)In Jackie Moon's world, wrestling a bear is a good way of promoting your failing basketball franchise.
Mustafa (Austin Powers) He's quite the survivor ("I've been very badly burned"), but if you can only take three questions before spilling clandestine info, then you're the worst henchman possible.
Ricky Bobby (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby)Sweet baby Jesus is Ricky Bobby dumb. He's the epitome of every Nascar stereotype every conceived.
Steve Butabi (A Night at the Roxbury) These club-addicted idiots have nothing rattling around their heads beyond velour suits and Haddaway's "What is Love."
Brennan Huff (Step Brothers)Brennan is probably the biggest and most spoiled man-child ever produced by the Ferrell and McKay tag team.
Ron Burgundy (Anchorman)Ron is pretty close to the top. Fortunately enough for him, though, the rest of the world surrounding him is nearly as stupid as he is.
Frank "The Tank" Rickard (Old School)Frank the Tank is definitively the stupidest person Will Ferrell has ever played. He somehow manages to shoot himself with a rhino tranquilizer just in time to ruin a kid's birthday party.
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Summit via Everett Collection
You can imagine that Renny Harlin, director and one quadrant of the writing team for The Legend of Hercules, began his pitch as such: We'll start with a war, because lots of these things start with wars. It feels like this was the principal maxim behind a good deal of the creative choices in this latest update of the Ancient Greek myth. There are always horse riding scenes. There are generally arena battles. There are CGI lions, when you can afford 'em. Oh, and you've got to have a romantic couple canoodling at the base of a waterfall. Weaving them all together cohesively would be a waste of time — just let the common threads take form in a remarkably shouldered Kellan Lutz and action sequences that transubstantiate abjectly to and fro slow-motion.
But pervading through Lutz's shirtless smirks and accent continuity that calls envy from Johnny Depp's Alice in Wonderland performance is the obtrusive lack of thought that went into this picture. A proverbial grab bag of "the basics" of the classic epic genre, The Legend of Hercules boasts familiarity over originality. So much so that the filmmakers didn't stop at Hercules mythology... they barely started with it, in fact. There's more Jesus Christ in the character than there is the Ancient Greek demigod, with no lack of Gladiator to keep things moreover relevant. But even more outrageous than the void of imagination in the construct of Hercules' world is its script — a piece so comically dim, thin, and idiotic that you will laugh. So we can't exactly say this is a totally joyless time at the movies.
Summit via Everett Collection
Surrounding Hercules, a character whose arc takes him from being a nice enough strong dude to a nice enough strong dude who kills people and finally owns up to his fate — "Okay, fine, yes, I guess I'm a god" — are a legion of characters whose makeup and motivations are instituted in their opening scenes and never change thereafter. His de facto stepdad, the teeth-baring King Amphitryon (Scott Adkins), despises the boy for being a living tribute to his supernatural cuckolding; his half-brother Iphicles (Liam Garrigan) is the archetypical scheming, neutered, jealous brother figure right down to the facial scar. The dialogue this family of mongoloids tosses around is stunningly brainless, ditto their character beats. Hercules can't understand how a mystical stranger knows his identity, even though he just moments ago exited a packed coliseum chanting his name. Iphicles defies villainy and menace when he threatens his betrothed Hebe (Gaia Weiss), long in love with Hercules, with the terrible fate of "accepting [him] and loving [their] children equally!" And the dad... jeez, that guy must really be proud of his teeth.
With no artistic feat successfully accomplished (or even braved, really) by this movie, we can at the very least call it inoffensive. There is nothing in The Legend of Hercules with which to take issue beyond its dismal intellect, and in a genre especially prone to regressive activity, this is a noteworthy triumph. But you might not have enough energy by the end to award The Legend of Hercules with this superlative. Either because you'll have laughed yourself into a coma at the film's idiocy, or because you'll have lost all strength trying to fend it off.
1/5
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For a film about a woman's desperation to have a child, Expecting is remarkably uninterested in sentiment or schmaltz. Instead, the film, which is the first from writer-director Jessie McCormack, takes a more realistic approach to the subject, and frames it through an unusual surrogacy agreement that attempts to make the best out of a disappointing situation. But that determinedly realistic approach could turn off some moviegoers, as Expecting showcases not only the funny, warm-hearted aspects of the story, but spends just as much time on its more unappealing elements.
Lizzie (Radha Mitchell) is desperate to be a mother, but despite several rounds of IVF, she is still unable to conceive a child with her husband (Jon Dore). Meanwhile, her wild-child best friend Andie (Michelle Monaghan) has become pregnant as the result of a one night stand, but can’t see herself raising a child. So, she does what any good best friend would do, and offers to have the baby and give it to Lizzie, who instantly agrees on the condition that Andie come live with her and Peter during the duration of the pregnancy. Peter is unhappy with this news – he doesn’t particularly care for his wife’s best friend – but he complicates things further when he insists that his brother Casey (Michael Weston), fresh out of rehab, move in as well so that Peter can keep an eye on him. And so, two become four, and nobody’s very happy about it.
The characters in Expecting are not easily likeable, which helps add an air of reality to what would otherwise be a very unrealistic situation. Andie in particular will be the most divisive amongst audiences, with her habit of making blunt, inappropriate jokes at the worst times. However, Monaghan does a wonderful job portraying the different layers to Andie, from her party girl persona, to her terror over being a mother, to her desire to keep from losing her friend, and her desperation to find someone who cares about her. Andie is often annoying, and many of her jokes are more rude than amusing, but Monaghan does a wonderful job of giving the character depth and realism in her quieter moments.
Similarly, Casey, who begins the film as cold and closed off, quickly becomes one of the most entertaining characters in the film. Much of his job is to bring some lightness to the film, which is a slightly unusual task for a character that's a drug addict, but Casey and Peter’s antagonistic relationship is one of the film’s most amusing elements, and the growing friendship between him and Andie is a pleasure to watch, as Weston’s chemistry with Monaghan is one of Expecting’s surprising strengths. The vast majority of the film’s laughs, however, come from Mimi Kennedy as Peter and Lizzie’s therapist, whose snarky judgment of her patients’ actions often articulates what the audience is thinking.
Lizzie is meant to be the more straight-laced, together friend, but between her penchant for cartwheels and her constant ukulele playing, she comes off as more of a stereotype of a “quirky” Los Angeles housewife. It quickly becomes apparent, though, that Lizzie and Peter are just as messed up as Casey and Peter, and are often more selfish and unlikable than their counterparts. Mitchell is unafraid of showcasing those aspects of Lizzie’s personality, but she doesn’t quite manage to get the audience to warm to her the way Monaghan does with Andie, and so never inspires the kind of sympathy that is needed to keep them invested in her journey. Dore, meanwhile, doesn’t have much to do, and so never quite manages to give Peter any real substance beyond being a henpecked husband and an uncharismatic real estate agent.
The core of the film is Lizzie and Andie’s friendship, and how it struggles against all of the drastic changes they are experiencing. However, the other major theme of Expecting is the realization that sometimes, the people who appear to be the screw-ups turn out to be more capable of handing the craziness of life than those who appear to have their lives together. Andie and Casey are, in the end, the more compelling characters because of their ability to grow and mature over the course of the film, whereas Lizzie and Peter are more static. They don’t seem to learn much, if anything, during the movie’s 87-minute runtime, which means their story isn’t as interesting or enjoyable to watch.
Although it’s often hard to enjoy spending time with these characters, that realism works well to keep the film true to life. People in the real world are often selfish, brash or unbearable, and by giving Lizzie, Andie, Peter, and Casey these characteristics, Expecting is able to ground its slightly absurd premise and also to make the film’s un-romantic resolution more satisfying. There's enough charm to keep things enjoyable, though, and McCormack's determination to keep the film realistic results in a refreshing take on a story of female friendship and baby-craziness.
3.5/5
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BURN NOTICE -- "Desperate Measures" -- Pictured: Jeffrery Donovan as Michael Westen -- (Photo by Glenn Watson/USA It's been a while since Burn Notice ended its run at seven seasons and I'm still digesting what happened. Be warned though, I'm going to go into spoiler-heavy details, so if you haven't seen the episode, stop now, watch it and then come back. I'll be here. I'm serious. Shoo. OK. You good now? I'll continue.
I disliked how this season had gone in terms of plot, what with them straying away from the formula of Michael Westen and his crew helping out people in trouble. Heck, they had even stopped doing the captions like "Steve Austin... The Bad Guy." Instead, they had Westen go undercover and into a very deep, dark place.
The show attempted to redeem itself very quickly in this episode, with Westen snapping back to his normal self very quickly and reuniting with his crew, Fiona Glenanne, Sam Axe and Jesse Porter and got them figuring out how to extricate themselves from the mess they were in: both the CIA and a terrorist organization after them.
There were some emotional moments. The most touching part was the goodbye call between Westen and his mother, Maddie, who was about to sacrifice herself to give him a chance against his nemesis, James Kendrick, the terrorist leader. It was a redemption of sorts for Maddie, who had let both Westen and his brother, Nate, be abused by their father growing up, Despite my dislike of how the season had gone, I found my living room to be very dusty, despite my having vacuumed earlier. Sharon Gless, Jeffrey Donovan and Coby Bell all handled those scenes really well.
The writers also made callbacks to some of the more famous lines from the show, with Bruce Campbell's Axe saying his "spies are a bunch of b----y girls" and Fiona sort of reprising his opening line: "My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy" which is total fan service, but it worked.
Did it redeem itself? For a little bit towards the end, it looked like the nuclear option had been chosen, but Westen and Glenanne avoided death and wound up together in a new place to raise Westen's nephew. The groundwork for a possible spin-off with Axe and Porter was also laid (do it, USA Network. do it).
It was a definitive end and not a happy one for everyone, but it wasn't one that Matt Nix, the show's creator should be ashamed of.
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I'm gonna take issue, from a writing standpoint, with the title of last night's Following episode, "The End is Near." Objectively, yes — the end of the season is very near, exactly one week away. One way or another there will be some kind of ending (probably Parker's, when she's revealed to be a closet Follower), and more than likely Joe will allude 1, 3, or 57 times throughout the episode to the fact that we've reached it. "Oooh, I just love endings, Ryan, don't you?" Joe will say as he torture-reads Hardy passages from his manuscript.
But that's the problem, Joe! This book you're writing is nowhere near completion. Buddy, when you're watching 2-year-old sex tapes of your protagonist/BFF and trying to solidify basic character motivation? You're still in the research phase. (And maybe even procrastinating, if we imagine Followers watch creepy sex videos the way we do YouTube.) So don't tell me we're near the end, Joe/Following writers. Like everything on this show, we're circling somewhere around the middle.
Under strict orders from my therapist to utilize the "one positive, one negative" approach to comments and opinions, I'll say that stuff did happen this week in a way that stuff has maybe not happened for various non-consecutive periods in the past. Joe's Followers finally executed some sort of plan! Maybe it only made sense in the context of a diversion. And maybe it held only the most tenuous of Poe connections ('Mask of the Red Death'), in adherence with the Following charter. But attacking the Havenport Rec Center — when Hardy had specifically told them not to — was definitely a bold counter to those critics who may have suggested they "don't do anything" or "are stupid." Kudos, guys! You're all dead now but hey, you made it into Joe's book*.
*This one I can barely joke around. If there's been any ongoing mystery The Following has tried to stoke, it's why, beyond likely insanity, any one of Joe's 30+ acolytes would devote their lives to his cult. The answer (almost tossed off, by Emma, as she tried to convince Jacob not to run away): because they're all going to get a character based on them in his book! Hahahahahahahahahahaha. Terrorists? They get 67 VIRGINS IN TERRORIST AFTERLIFE. You Follower chumps are getting a fake character name, enshrined in writing that's about on par with my Following recaps (e.g. mediocre). You make the guy who spent $10,000 for a walk-on cameo in the Veronica Marsmovie seem like a brilliant person.
While Hardy and Co. tended to the "murder and mayhem" (JOE'S WORDS, NOT MINE) at the rec center, Joe — along with his new #s 2 and 3, Emma and Jacob, and Claire — were holed up in some poor hostages' home, waiting out the police lockdown. Good news: they really made the most of it! While Joe prepared an Italian feast in the kitchen, Claire bonded with the couple unlucky enough to have been home. The man, it turns out, had worked with Joe in his professorial days. Sure, this was ultimately an unnecessary bit of information that shed no more light on any characters nor wrinkled the plot in any way. But….ummm….
Claire attacked Joe! Again! After falling for the old "just untie me so I can pour this expensive bottle of wine, I know your side hurts," trick, Joe found himself on the losing edge of, in order: 1) a wine bottle 2) a fork and 3) a well-placed kick to the side. "Your book sucks!" Claire should have finished with, but she was in a hurry to get out of there with the professor and his wife. Unlike Joe, or me, not everyone has time for silly verbal barbs.
Parker shot a chick at the rec center massacre. Was she a Follower or an innocent bystander? Neither the writing nor the lighting work would tell us! But I do know, definitively, that Parker was taken by a cadre of Followers. So taken that she was actually thrown into a makeshift coffin and, her whimpering against the first few credits, buried alive. In just 14 episodes, The Following has already kidnapped, eyeball-gouged, stabbed, bludgeoned, and throat-slit more than a few FBI agents. "But burying one of us alive crosses the line," I only wish Hardy had said, but once again the episode playing in my head is very different than the one unfolding via Slingbox. If anyone cared, I think this show could foster a really vibrant fan fiction community.
WHERE WE ARE, heading into the "end": Jacob's dead. Emma loves Joe. Joe hates Claire. Hardy loves Claire. Claire's on a boat. Parker's in a coffin. Joe's in a slump. Weston's a wildcard. Hardy's ex-girlfriend is still out there, presumably reviewing their sex tapes like game footage. Nick or whoever is getting replacement eye surgery (good luck!). Roderick hasn't even received a proper burial. There's one episode left. Flowers can grow even in graveyards. We'll all smile again one day soon.
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It must be quite the bummer existing as the lead character in a detective serial, knowing full well that no matter where you go or what you do, you're inevitably going to stumble upon a murder. Such is the fate of James Roday's poor, unfortunate, but somehow perpetually chipper Shawn Spencer, who embarks upon a casino voyage in the newest episode of Psych. One that any fan of the show will expect to turn sour, and fast.
Shawn and his ubiquitous sidekick Gus (Dule Hill) take to the valleys of blackjack and slot machines to celebrate the bachelor party of their "pal" Lassiter (Timothy Omundson), all the while taking umbrage with the antics of the latter's ne'er-do-well friend, who seems to have a particular fondness for the locale's call girl popualtion. Check out the exclusive video below from the latest Psych episode, "Deez Nups," which airs Wednesday.
Follow Michael Arbeiter on Twitter @MichaelArbeiter
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There's a very simple trick to getting 25-year-old guys to enjoy your smart, sensitive, indie comedy about female friendship: have a very funny, borderline-explicit BJ scene in it. Okay, so that's not the only reason they should like a movie like Gus, but star Michelle Monaghan acknowledged that might be why some dudes who attended the SXSW premiere of her new film liked it. Then again, Monaghan got a kick out of the scene herself.
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Monaghan plays Andie, a single, free-spirited woman who unexpectedly finds herself pregnant and offers to give the baby to her married best friend Lizzie (Radha Mitchell), who has struggled to start a family of her own. The scene in question finds Andie in an ill-advised hook-up with Lizzie's brother-in-law, Casey (Michael Weston). While she, well, fellates him, he tries to, well, guide her — much to her annoyance — so she gives him a piece of her mind. "When I read the script I was like, 'Please honey, we've all been there'," Monaghan said during a chat with Hollywood.com at SXSW. "I think it's just such a funny scene from a female perspective, and it's never been touched on before…so to speak. I just welcomed it."
The scene doesn't only go for a big laugh (though it got one with audiences here); it also turns the table on your typical sex scene, putting the guy in the vulnerable position and having her take control, something for which Monaghan praised her co-star. "Michael Weston is genius. His reaction to that scene, I thought, was much bolder than me actually having to go through the motions. He actually had to verbalize what he was going through. I think he did it in like one or two takes," Monaghan said, adding, "..because I'm that good. I'm sorry, I had to go there!"
It should be noted that at this point in the conversation, the room — which also included Mitchell and Gus' director Jessie McCormack — erupted with laughter at Monaghan's response. It's clear the women who worked together on screen bonded off screen, too. It was that very female-dominated set — in addition to the director, and the two leading ladies, Monaghan pointed out that the DP, editor, and producer were also women — that made the actress so happy to be part of the project.
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Monaghan, who has been paired on-screen as the significant other to the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal, Casey Affleck, and Robert Downey Jr., said she was thrilled to have a different kind of on-screen partnership for Gus. "It was so nice to have chemistry with another woman for a change," Monaghan said. "I'd never met Radha before but we hit it off like a house on fire."
She continued: "It was so amazing to be surrounded by all these talented and creative women. It just solidified the fact that I want to continue to work with more and more women. I just finished a film a couple of months ago with another female director and it was so great. It's just a different kind of approach, its not better, necessarily, or worse, just a different way to approach things through the storytelling or the way that you talk about the characters. It's nice to have that balance."
Monaghan said she's encouraged by the shift in Hollywood toward more strong female characters like Andie — "She's unlike any character I've ever played. She's incredibly loose and she's overtly comedic. So that was a real welcome for me." — and more movies about and for women. "I think that weird rumor or idea in Hollywood that people don't want to see female-driven movies couldn't be further from the truth. Women buy tickets to movies," Monaghan said. "I think one of the reasons Jessie really wanted to make [Gus] was because she was like, 'I can't remember the last time that I saw [a movie with] two female leads that was really exploring women's friendship.' I thought she explored it really, really honestly and beautifully."
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The actress, who said she has no immediate plans to direct herself, added that she hopes films like Gus will inspire young, female filmmakers. "I think that's why it's important with film festivals like SXSW... for people in the audience to be part of these screenings and to see other young filmmakers, female filmmakers, at the screenings, in the audience, at the Q&amp;As, and be encouraged by it. To see there's a reality out there that is in the zeitgeist, that it is something you can do: It is a possibility."
[Photo credit: Erica Parise]
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Chasing Mavericks is one of those hoary "based on a true story" movies that borders on hagiography. It's a fictionalized take on the early life of surfing wunderkind Jay Moriarity (Jonny Weston) and his attempt with the help of his mentor Frosty (Gerard Butler) to conquer the giant waves known as "mavericks." Although the beaches of North California and their crashing waves are gorgeous the story and the acting don't hold water. Chasing Mavericks is more interested in showing Moriarity to be a hero than an actual person and the movie suffers for it in the end.
Weston plays Moriarity as a 15-year-old and although Weston is still in his early twenties he looks disconcertingly older. The tan make-up doesn't help and neither does his hollow performance which is mostly just him looking wide-eyed and earnest. He's not given much to work with the challenges he has to overcome not given much weight at all. Moriarity's dad left when he was a kid and his mom (Elisabeth Shue) is often drunk and can't keep a job. This could have been an interesting development — Jay has to take care of her and loan her money and lives in what looks like a cubbyhole in the living room — but it's given short shrift. The movie Moriarity patiently does her laundry and wakes her up for work instead of what a normal 15-year-old would do which would probably include at the very least some choice four letter words or acting out. Although his mentoring at the hands of Butler's Frosty does explore some of Jay's pain and fears he's not particularly affected by anything. He just shakes it all off like a shaggy dog who's spent a day at the beach.
Other plot developments are equally toothless and without any real consequence. He has a bully who verbally taunts him but eventually respects him. His best friend is either doing or selling drugs given his shady goings-on and wads of dough in his pocket. Moriarity holds a torch for his childhood friend Kim (Leven Rambin) who is apparently embarrassed to be seen with him but even she isn't all that bad. It's like an after-school special that runs for 105 minutes (but feels much longer).
His crusty mentor Frosty is supposed to be a damaged man whose passion for surfing trumps everything even it seems supporting his family. At one point it's clear he's lied to his wife about going to do construction work but she just sort of shrugs it off. Brenda (Abigail Spencer) knows Frosty's love for the ocean and how it heals him from past tragedies so she mostly tolerates his behavior aside from a few sharp remarks. As his voiceover indicates (delivered by Butler with an accent that goes in and out) these "Children of the Tides" are simply drawn to the ocean even if it kills them. The passion trumps all as it surely did in the life of the real Jay Moriarity.
The footage of the men surfing is the centerpiece of the story which is probably why everything else feels like an afterthought. Even this is uneven though. Some of it is obviously Butler and Weston — Butler was injured on the set while filming a surfing scene — but the faraway shots don't really match up. It's not clear if this is archival footage or if it's just poorly edited and filmed. A few scenes in the movie look startlingly different all cloudy grays with Butler haggard and thinner and although it could be just a really ham-handed way to visually indicate grief this interlude looks like it's from an entirely different movie. A perk of Chasing Mavericks is its "alternative" music soundtrack that is immediately recognizable and surprisingly on point with songs from Mazzy Star Matthew Sweet and the Butthole Surfers popping up at appropriate times.
While surely the people involved in making the film are dedicated to preserving Jay's memory and inspiring others it's hard to take it seriously or be emotionally moved by such a blatantly unblemished portrayal. Real tributes show that grit and shortcomings of their subjects as much as why they're heroes.

Actor Justin Long has withdrawn from a new Los Angeles play due to a "film commitment". The Garden State star was set to lead the cast of Other Desert Cities at the Mark Taper Forum, when the production hit the stage at the end of November (12). He will be replaced by Michael Weston.